March, Anna;
Allen, Kate;
Davies, Karuna;
Harris, Julie;
Bethel, Alison;
Kennedy, Laura;
Malhotra, Tamanna;
... Berry, Vashti; + view all
(2025)
Place-based approaches to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people: a rapid realist review.
Systematic Reviews
, 14
, Article 115. 10.1186/s13643-025-02838-8.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adolescent mental health continues to be a pressing public health concern across the globe, in spite of renewed efforts in recent years to improve mental health and wellbeing outcomes. With many mental health services and systems ill-equipped to meet young people's needs, there is growing evidence that prevention interventions addressing the social and structural determinants of mental health should be prioritised. Consequently, there is a move away from isolated interventions towards 'place-based approaches' that aim to unlock systemic or structural change. However, there is limited evidence on how these approaches create change and the different contextual factors or underlying mechanisms that influence outcomes. This is the first realist review on place-based approaches to improve young people's mental health. METHODS: This rapid realist review synthesises relevant literature on place-based approaches to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. The review involved consultation with programme developers, an expert panel of content specialists and a Young Person's Advisory Group. Online databases were searched for peer-reviewed and grey literature published between January 2000 and August 2023, resulting in 5685 articles. RESULTS: Fifteen articles from eight countries were included in the review, from which 11 realist context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs) were developed to explain the underlying mechanisms present in the place-based approaches. These CMOCs were categorised into three themes: (1) Building relationships and trust, (2) bringing a social determinants lens, and (3) educating and empowering community stakeholders. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides valuable insights into the mechanisms underpinning place-based approaches. However, the mechanisms identified primarily address the intermediate outcomes of place-based approaches, such as engaging the right stakeholders and creating opportunities for youth voices to be heard. Articles did not address the challenges around long-term sustainability and there remain crucial questions around the pathway to wider systemic change. Recommendations are included for future development and evaluation of place-based approaches to improve young people's mental health. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42023450778.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Place-based approaches to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people: a rapid realist review |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s13643-025-02838-8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-025-02838-8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Systemic change, Social determinants, Mental health, Wellbeing, Realist review |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208879 |
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